LAKE ELSINORE: Trustees vote to close school

Move will save $813,000 per year

Lake Elsinore school trustees voted 4-1 Wednesday night to begin
the formal process of closing Butterfield Elementary School and
converting two other campuses for students in kindergarten through
eighth grade.

The vote was 4-1, with Sue Scott dissenting.

The move was made as the Lake Elsinore Unified School District
looks to cut more than $10 million from its budget for the 2010-11
school year because of less than expected revenue from the
state.

Closing Butterfield will save $813,000 per year on salaries and
operational costs, trustees were told Wednesday by Assistant
Superintendent Greg Bowers.

Butterfield will close in June and Lakeland Village Middle
School will add elementary students when classes begin in
August.

The change will be phased in at Luiseno Elementary, with sixth
graders added next year, seventh graders the year after that and
eighth graders in 2012-13.

That will allow time for the addition of a two-story building
with eight classrooms next year, an additional four classrooms for
science in 2011-12 and a multipurpose room/gymnasium in
2012-13.

Cost for the conversion will be more than $8 million, Bowers
said. The money will come from funds restricted to school
construction, he added.

More cuts could come from increasing class sizes and laying off
teachers and support workers.

If all 148 teachers were laid off, Superintendent Frank
Passarella said, that would equate to the staff of three schools,
meaning more campuses could be closed.

"We simply won't need those classrooms to house kids,"
Passarella said during Wednesday's governing board meeting.

What campuses those may be were not outlined.

More than $800,000 in salaries and operational costs would be
saved if Butterfield closed, and a similar amount would be saved by
shuttering other campuses.

Besides the teachers, up to 71 support workers could lose their
jobs, a number that would more than double if more schools were
closed.

The potential cuts come before the school district knows exactly
what its budget will be next year. The governor is expected to
release a budget in January.

"Whatever happens in January could potentially raise these
numbers or potentially mitigate these numbers," Assistant
Superintendent Kip Meyers told the board.

The district's executive staff has already agreed to take nine
furlough days, but even if the two labor unions agree to the same,
it wouldn't close the entire gap without layoffs, Passarella
said.

Nine furlough days would save about $5 million, Meyers said.

To balance the budget, every teacher would have to agree to an
8.25 percent pay cut, Meyers said.